I've taken the following
from the excellent Sovereign Society A letter. It is
free to subscribe and contains excellent information.

... The fact is that the
Uncle Sam taxes every American citizen on their worldwide
income, no matter where they live or for how long. Virtually
every other country in the world, except for Eritrea and
the Philippines, taxes their residents...but not citizens
residing abroad.

Lots of people, including me, think this
is unfair.

Nonetheless, "facts are facts,"
and those of us who are U.S. citizens must deal with the
realities of how our country taxes us, domestically and
offshore.

Over the years, I've met many individuals
who have committed some serious tax mistakes because they
just didn't know any better. Quite a few haven't lived
in the U.S. for decades and simply had no idea that they
still needed to pay U.S. taxes. They didn't understand
that they needed to file a U.S. tax return, every single
year, on their foreign earned income. And I've advised
quite a few that they needed to report their foreign bank
accounts and their interests in foreign corporations annually
as well.

If you ignore (or simply don't know about)
these reporting requirements, you could face serious repercussions.
If you add up the maximum criminal penalties for non-compliance
with these mandatory reporting rules, you could face years
in prison, and millions of dollars in fines. For instance,
the penalty for a U.S. citizen to not report a foreign
bank account, for just one year, is a five-year prison
term and a US$250,000 fine.

.... If you're in this situation, you
can become compliant with U.S. tax and reporting obligations
by hiring a U.S. tax attorney who could prepare and file
the necessary forms and tax returns. The cost of doing
so could be tens of thousands of dollars (but well worth
it, if you consider the alternative). It's also quite
possible that if you did take this step, before any investigation
was initiated, there would be no criminal penalties imposed.
But if you fail to become compliant, the next time you
travel to the United States, you could be pulled out of
the line going through Customs and whisked off to an IRS
office for interrogation and eventual arrest.

... there are many advantages to going
offshore - among them asset protection, financial privacy,
and access to lucrative, global investments that are off
the radar of your U.S. broker or money manager. But only
rarely are there tax advantages for a U.S. person offshore.
And if you do choose to go offshore as a U.S. citizen,
there are numerous tax and reporting obligations that
you must adhere to.

Moral of this cautionary tale: it's dangerous
to assume you're in full tax compliance. Always consult
with a U.S. tax attorney just to be safe.

MARK NESTMANN

(the above are excerpts,
not his full letter)

Consider yourself warned.

Citizens of just a few
third world countries, and of the USA, have to worry
about taxes even if they do not live in their country of
birth.

These banana republics
own their cow, and they want the milk sent home even
if it is eating grass in another pasture.

If you are one of their
cows they also want to brand you, herd you, and call
you up for self-sacrifice if they so desire.

Some give up their US citizenship
to escape, but the re-branding process is not easy.
You have to go to a US embassy to do so, putting yourself
in their hands while they check your records. If they
decide you are leaving to avoid future taxes, they
will require you pay taxes even after you are no longer
a citizen - they want to keep milking you.

They may demand a severance
package - pay taxes now on all your assets (not just
earnings) before you leave. Consider this an early
inheritance tax.

Just as there is great
benefit to speculating when young and building wealth
over time; so there is a benefit to escaping before
you gain enough wealth to cause you to be of interest
to the IRS.

You may earn your money
- but slaves can't own money - it belongs to their
masters. If you ignore this and are wealthy enough;
they may knock you on the head, toss you on a plane,
and drag you off to debtor's prison in the US just
to make an example of you.

This stuff does change
frequently - usually for the worse. Check with competent
advisers for current rules, regulations, laws, and
requirements.